Frogs, Snails and a Mouse - Vietnamese Adventures in BBQ and Beer
Sometimes it best just to throw yourself into an experience. Ho Chi Minh city / Saigon is a world renowned culinary destination. From pho to banh mi, its foods are known the world over. But what if you escape the backpacker hub of District 1? Join us for one crazy night of unexpected dining delights in the big city. From barbecued mouse to a snake sausage... Read on to hear all about this culinary adventure!
For those that have been keeping up with our adventures you may have noticed a couple of things:
One - We like our food. We are willing to travel for a good meal and are up for trying pretty much anything.
Two - We enjoy a nice cold beer, wherever we are, we somehow manage to track down someone selling a refreshing brew.
Finally three - We tend to go with the flow in pretty much any situation, whether that is continuing on as planned amidst a political uprising or just seeing where the night takes us, we tend to let the situation decide our course of action.
A good example of all three of these traits is what happened one night in Ho Chi Minh City….
We love Ho Chi Minh. We love the whirlwind chaos of scooters, its sweaty climate, its colourful markets but most of all we love its food culture. Nowhere else on our travels has had the sheer volume of available food. Every street corner, alleyway and square spills over with restaurants and vendors plying their tasty wares.
On one night of our 14 day sojourn in Ho Chi Minh we planned to take advantage of this abundance of food and hop between a few places eating a bowl or plate at each. The night would start at a small restaurant in the district of Phu Nhuan, far north and away from the tourist hub of District 1.
Our first stop would, although we were as yet unaware, be our last food stop of the evening. Our one or two small plates would become a multi-course tasting menu and our cheeky beer would become a small aluminium mountain…. As we said before we tend to just go where the night takes us.
Seated at our table we perused the menu, this was done with a great deal of effort and with the aid of Google Translate. Despite Duolingo’s best efforts, our Vietnamese was not up to scratch. As we were only going to have a little here and move on (we thought) we opted for snails and clams with a couple of cans of Tiger beer. The lovely lady who owned the place and waited the tables, flew around shouting orders into the kitchen before digging out the two beer cans from a pile of ice inside a large cool box . She cracked them open for us and poured them into ice filled glasses.
A side note here: many people seem to look on with horror at the Vietnamese practice of having beer with ice and we genuinely can’t see why. It’s 30+ degrees at night and near 100% humidity - give us all the ice you can!
Our clams and snails swiftly arrived along with two more cans of Tiger as our glasses “looked gone” to her. We didn’t object. The clams were delicious, served in a light as air ginger broth. The snails were similarly yummy although a good deal harder to get out. We were given special snail corkscrews that were meant to make the job easier but all we can say is that we are not skilled snail extractors.
During our snail based struggles two more tables arrived and had taken an interest in our strife. A lovely older gentleman came up and, after another round of Tiger beers had materialised (we didn't even see the woman this time), orchestrated a round of traditional toasts though the restaurant.
Mot
Hai
Bat
Yo!
And now there was another can of Tiger at our elbows. We sensibly decided that we should get some more food. As the restaurant had a picture of a rabbit on its sign and a barbecue smouldering away next to us, we decided on some barbecued rabbit and a plate of barbecued pork ribs.
The rabbit was fantastic, not dry at all (rabbit is very lean, so hard to BBQ without drying it out) and covered in a sweet glaze that gave the skin a satisfying snap. The pork ribs however, were next level. Sweet and tender, glazed in soy fish sauce and honey, they were delicious. It was around this time the table next to us took out a mysterious Tupperware box.
A man from the neighbouring table came over and introduced himself in perfect English. “I am very sorry” he said, “my friends would like to give you some of their food”. Normally people don’t apologise for offering free food, not in our experience at least. We reassured him that we would love to try whatever they would give us. Our response was relayed to the table and was enthusiastically received, prompting another round of toasts. The beer ninja had replaced our cans whilst we were distracted.
Some restaurants are bring your own bottle, some allow you to cook fish that you caught yourself, ours apparently had an open barbecue policy. On this night the open barbecue was to be taken full advantage of. The mysterious Tupperware box was brought to the embers and its contents revealed. Our new friends obviously thought the menu to be too constrictive, too vanilla and wanted something more avant garde. They had come to the restaurant with a box full of marinated mouse.
After a short spell over the flames the tiny spatchcocked bodies arrived on our plates. They were unmistakably rodent shaped. Unexpectedly, however, they were delicious! We will, as has been previously mentioned, try anything once and this has led to some disasters in the past (Cambodian dried snake was a particularly horrible mouthful of bones), but tonight our culinary bravery was paying off. The mouse was tiny with very little meat but the little drumsticks of its legs were yummy in a sweet spicy glaze. It was like a very scrawny chicken but much tastier.
Emboldened by our acceptance of their rodent rations, more food began to appear. The beer fairy also visited and two more cans of Tiger teleported into existence at our elbows. Dried squid in a sweet and sour sauce was our next course. Very chewy and very fishy were our immediate thoughts but before we could vocalise our displeasure we both realised we had taken another chopstick full. It was a strange food, we didn’t exactly love it but it was addictive. We were unsurprised to learn that this is a drinking food.
Next came the frog. Now that is a fun sentence to write! We had seen these hapless amphibians in a tank off to the side of the room, lolloping unhappily in their prisons. Now they appeared in front of us, deep fried and crispy. Deep fried frog skin is possibly the best crunch in the whole business of crispy toppings. The snap of really well fried fish skin but with the texture and flavour of the very best chicken skin. KFC eat your heart out, give us some KFF any day. The frog meat was likewise delicious, with the texture of chicken but the taste of meaty monk fish with a sweet, spicy sauce coating every bite.
More beer flowed. Sometimes handed to us by the lovely owner, sometimes magically appearing out of thin air. We were stuffed and increasingly tipsy, so we had to call uncle on the food. It was either stop eating or burst! Our new friends were sad at this news as they had another special course about to go on the barbecue. Maybe we could be tempted? Maybe our stomach had just enough room for some more? As the enormous stuffed snake sausage hit the barbecue we were quite sure we could consume no more.
We had come in for a couple of small plates and a round of beers, it was now four hours in, seven plates and countless cans of Tiger later. We had had an amazing night eating dishes we would never have tried if not for our local pals. The food had been delicious and even if it was mildly shocking at first, it had opened our eyes. That man at the table next to us had not marinaded his mice in the hopes of shocking two random British people, he had marinated them because they taste so good!
The next night we came back and ordered the frog.
Thanks for reading,
John & Ellie x
#adventuresofjellie
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